Understanding Styes and Their Treatment

Styes are sore, red bumps at the eyelid's edge. These can occur inside or outside the eyelid and result from an infection at the base of the eyelash. Although styes rarely cause permanent damage and resolve within several days, these bumps can be annoying and disrupt your vision. Fortunately, your optometrist near you at Caroline Robison Optometry in Tehachapi and Ridgecrest, CA, can treat your styes and help you regain comfortable vision. Continue reading to learn more about styes and how to treat them.

What Are Styes?

Styes generally result from blocked oil glands or staphylococcal bacterial infection of the eyelash follicle. Touching mucus in your nose and rubbing your eyes is one cause of styes. They almost always disappear within a week as your body fights the infection. Styes often increase in size, become yellow or white due to pus, and may burst independently. Although styes that burst tend to heal faster, you should not pop your stye since doing so can release pus in the skin and lead to other eye infections.

Treating Styes

Since most styes go away independently, home treatment is all that is necessary in most cases. However, you should seek care from your eye doctor if a stye lasts longer than a week, becomes highly painful, or spreads. Your eye doctor can prescribe antibiotic eye drops or oral medications to target the underlying bacterial infection. Severe styes may require an incision to remove pus and ease pain. Steroid injections can also help reduce inflammation caused by styes.

The primary home treatment for styes is applying a warm compress for 10 to 15 minutes three to four times daily. The compress should be as warm as bearable but not hot enough to burn the skin. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after touching your stye or applying a compress. Regularly cleaning your eyelids with a gentle cleanser also helps prevent styes from occurring. While styes can be unsightly, you should not cover them with makeup or wear contact lenses until the stye is fully healed.

Get Effective Treatment for Eye Infections Today at Caroline Robison Optometry

If you are dealing with a stye that lasts longer than a week or need the help of a pediatric eye doctor, consider contacting Caroline Robison Optometry in Tehachapi and Ridgecrest, CA. Our eye doctor can treat your eye infections to help you regain pain-free vision, so call us and schedule an appointment at our Tehachapi location at (661) 972-6890 or our Ridgecrest location at (760) 375-4496.